Sir Michael Rocks Breaks Down His Best Album Covers

It wouldn’t be a stretch to call The Cool Kids the originators of hipster rap. The duo, made up of producer/MC Chuck Inglish and MC Mikey Rocks, closely followed Kanye in a trend-setting parade of skinny jeans, and inspired a new wave of MCs who were cool with embracing the culture, streetwear and sounds of the 90′s. As the Kids caught major attention and traction with EPs like Totally Flossed Out and The Bake Sale, their career stalled because of label issues and a growing number of groups who essentially copied their sound.

Still, the duo—who’s been on a hiatus since their oft-delayed 2011 debut album When Fish Ride Bicycles—has continued to stay hard at work on new music, only now through solo ventures. Since Bicycles, Inglish has expanded on his production catalogue by working with artists like Buddy, Asher Roth and Two9, and has put out two beat mixtapes and an EP. Meanwhile, Mikey Rocks—who now goes by the regal moniker Sir Michael Rocks—has worked on songs with Curren$y and Mac Miller and has dropped a handful of diversely great solo mixtapes. His next effort is While You Wait…, a mixtape that’ll serve as an interim project before the release of Banco, an EP Rocks has teased for close to a year.

During a stop in NYC, Sir Michael stopped by the XXL offices to play the staff some new (banging) music off While You Wait and took some time out to walk us through the awesome cover art off some of his personal projects. Needless to say, dude’s a visionary.